Witnesses testified about unrest in the Arab world and the role of groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Witnesses included an Egyptian born Islamic scholar who was granted political asylum in the U.S., and an author of a book on the Muslim Brotherhoods influence in the West.

Lorenzo Vidino, a visiting Fellow at the Rand Corporation; Ahmed Subhy Mansour, President of the International Quranic Center; Tarek Masoud, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University; Robert Satloff, Executive Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and Nathan Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University.

U.S. government has no strategy to deal with Muslim Brotherhood

The federal government has no strategy to counter the Muslim Brotherhood at home or abroad, according to the chairwoman of the House panel that oversees counterintelligence and terrorism.

The federal government does not have a comprehensive or consistent strategy for dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliated groups in America, Rep. Sue Wilkins Myrick said during a hearing Wednesday. Nor does it have a strategy for dealing with the Brotherhood in Egypt or the greater Middle East.

The North Carolina Republican is chairwoman of the House Intelligence subcommittee on terrorism, human intelligence, analysis and counterintelligence. Mrs. Myrick said at the hearing that she planned on scheduling closed classified hearings on the Muslim Brotherhood this session with government officials.

Established in 1928 in Cairo, the Muslim Brotherhood is widely considered the first organization to push for political Islam or Islamism, a movement that seeks to replace civil law with Islamic or Shariah law.

Brotherhood gonna co-opt the Egyptian revolution...Will the Muslim Brotherhood soon control Egypt's parliament?May 1, 2011 - The Muslim Brotherhood's new plans to contest 50 percent of Egypt's parliamentary seats in upcoming elections are sparking concern that it will impose its Islamist ideas on the population.

The Muslim Brotherhoods new political party will field candidates in about half the parliamentary seats in Egypts first post-revolution elections, leaders announced Saturday. After years of being banned from politics and persecuted by former President Hosni Mubarak, the official launch of the groups Freedom and Justice Party was a historic moment. Leaders portrayed the party as inclusive, saying Christians and women can join. In accordance with Egyptian law, the party is officially civil, not religious, and is independent from the group. Leaders also repeated an earlier pledge not to run a candidate in presidential elections.

But the plans to contest 50 percent of parliamentary seats will be worrying to the secular and liberal-leaning young activists who were a strong force in the revolution. They fear that the Brotherhood, Egypts best-organized group, will dominate the parliament and impose its Islamist ideas on the population. Leaders had earlier said the group would only contest about 30 percent of the seats. The decision to go for a larger bloc in parliament is likely partially a result of pressure from rank-and-file members, who are not content to settle for a small percentage of the pie when the race is wide open, says independent analyst Ibrahim El Houdaiby, a former Brotherhood member.

The disbanding of Mubaraks National Democratic Party has left the Brotherhood with an advantage over the rest of the opposition, which lacks the grassroots organization and discipline of the Brotherhood. But Mr. Houdaiby also traces the decision to the increasing divide between the Brotherhood and the liberal secular groups since a constitutional referendum in February, when the two campaigned on opposite sides. As the gap widens between the two sides, the Brotherhood may feel it needs to win more seats in order to influence parliament because it will not be able to create coalitions with such groups, says Houdaiby. If you think you're on your own, on the other side of the game, then you need to have more seats, he says.

The Brotherhood surprised many by winning about 20 percent of parliamentary seats in 2005 elections. Last year, Mubaraks regime ensured that scenario did not repeat itself, and the elections were seen as the most fraudulent in recent history. Only one Brotherhood member won a seat. Diaa Rashwan, an analyst at the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, calls the decision to seek so many seats a mistake that will be perceived as overbearing by many Egyptians. The Brotherhood has overestimated its own popularity and underestimated the force of newly-empowered sectors of the population that only discovered politics during the revolution, he says.

MB gonna hijack Egypt's democracy movement...Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Seeks Greater InfluenceMay 01, 2011 - Egypt's once outlawed Muslim Brotherhood has announced the formation of a new political party, which it says will contest half of the parliamentary seats in the September election.

A spokesman Saturday described the Freedom and Justice party as a civil group with an Islamic background.

The Brotherhood has run independent candidates in the past to get around a ban on its participation in politics.

The new party has pledged to cooperate with secular groups in Egypt's new parliament. The Brotherhood also says the Freedom and Justice party will not field a candidate in November's presidential election.

Wonder if it'll be death by a 20 member team firing squad?...Death sentence for Egyptian policeman22 May 2011 - Officer convicted of shooting dead 20 protesters "at random" during upheaval that led to Mubarak's fall.

An Egyptian police officer convicted of killing 20 protesters during demonstrations that brought down Hosni Mubarak's government in February has been sentenced to death. Mohamed Ibrahim Abdel-Monem was found guilty in his absence on Sunday of shooting dead "at random" 20 protesters on January 28, one of the most violent days of the uprising that lasted 18 days. The criminal court in Cairo referred the case to the Grand Mufti, Egypt's religious authority who must approve all death sentences.

The sentencing follows long jail terms given to Mubarak-era officials who have been found guilty of corruption in an ongoing campaign by the military-led government to address protesters' demands, including swift trial for people accused of wrongdoing. Mubarak himself, his wife Suzanne and his powerful sons are being investigated for abuse of power and amassing illegally acquired wealth.

In May, Habib al-Adly, Egypt's former interior minister, was sentenced to 12 years in jail for money laundering and profiteering. Al-Adly is accused of ordering police to fire upon pro-democracy protesters and is one of the most senior ministers from the former government to be put on trial. Another former minister, Zoheir Garranah, who headed the tourism portfolio, was sentenced to five years after he was found guilty of handing out tourism licences illegally.

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